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Tuesday, 22 March 2016

This is an excerpt from 'Edible Plants
for Preppers' by Amanda Rofe (Amazon Kindle). Price £2.50 or free
with Kindle Unlimited. It is a plant-based guide for anyone
interested in being more resilient and self-sufficient in food in
these uncertain times.

In the British Isles there are
thousands of fungi and some of them are edible. It can be difficult
to identify fungi and some are absolutely deadly. Simply tasting a
tiny piece of unidentified mushroom can be very dangerous and a
quarter of a teaspoon of a really poisonous mushroom can kill. Even
the very safe and supposedly foolproof chicken of the woods can make
5 per cent of people sick. Certain mushrooms can cause illness if
eating in conjunction with alcohol.

It is the case that some people will
react badly to some edible mushrooms, even so-called safe ones.
However, mushroom poisoning usually causes vomiting and diarrhoea but
no long-term damage. It is generally considered that the overall
benefits of eating and using fungi far outweigh the downside. They
really are the good guys. This is the reason we carry on using them.

Some mushroom experts recommend cooking
all mushrooms, particularly those that have been foraged wild,
because they contain irritating or toxic substances such as
hydrazines, and they also recommend eating them in moderation. This
includes Agaricus bisporus, which is the button or white mushroom,
commonly sold in the supermarkets! It should be emphasised that no
amount of cooking is going to make the death cap or destroying angel
safe to eat.

A document by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) informs us that there are only a very few
poisonous mushrooms and that the only reliable guide to edibility is
the knowledge that someone has eaten a particular type and survived!
Some edible species are poisonous when raw, but fine when cooked.
Local knowledge of safe fungi are crucially important. Unfortunately,
as people die or move away from rural areas, this knowledge is often
lost.

Training should be sought from a
knowledgeable person in correct identification when foraging and
there are many good fungi courses available. Personal tuition is
infinitely better than a book. If using books choose a range because
one picture will not be sufficient for identification purposes.

Those who don’t feel confident
foraging for wild mushrooms can purchase mushroom spawn (similar to
seed) for home cultivation including mushroom kits, mushroom logs,
and wooden dowels which are impregnated with spawn. The dowels must
be pressed into holes that have been drilled in suitable logs. Some
of the medicinal mushrooms such as reishi (Ganoderma lucidum),
maitake (Grifola frondosa) and shi-itake (Lentinula edodes), can be
grown on logs like this.

Wooden dowels impregnated with chicken
of the woods

Storage and use: Drying is probably one
of the best ways of storing mushrooms. Dried mushrooms should always
be re-hydrated before use. Just add warm water and soak for 20-30
minutes. Dried mushrooms expand by 3-4 times after rehydration. Drain
and use the soak water as a broth for sauces, soups or stews. In this
way mushrooms can be used as a savoury ‘tea’ and is a
particularly good way of using the medicinal mushrooms. Dried
mushrooms are flavour intensive and give a ‘meaty’ taste and
texture meals. They are very useful for those who are missing meat
from their diet. Some of my favourite dried mushrooms for soups and
stews include chanterelle, chicken of the woods, porcini and morel.

Dried mushrooms can also be purchased
in bulk for storage. This does save the worry of identification and
the bother of home drying. However,
as with all purchased dehydrated foods, they can be expensive.

These mushrooms are some of the easiest
to identify and for that reason are often called the ‘foolproof
four’. This is mainly why I have given these five stars although
they do taste very good as well.

Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) *****

Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus
sulphureus) *****

Giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea) *****

Morel (Morchella esculenta) *****

Dried chanterelle mushrooms

Notes

Edible Plants for Preppers is a
plant-based (vegan) guide which recommends a raw food diet but does
also include references to cooked foods.

Five star ***** plants are those those that have certain qualities which make them stand out from the rest e.g. they can be found abundantly in the wild or they have many uses.